The Stranger by Albert Camus
Painfully nonchalant, staggeringly indifferent, frequently existential, and occasionally misogynic book that dives deep into questions of existence, death, oblivion, and bureaucracy.
"Mother died today. Or, maybe yesterday; I can't be sure."is how the book begins. It's an epitome of introductions because it sums up the book with words so precise and smooth.
Meaursault aka the stranger doesn't see meaning in life since we all are susceptible to death and oblivion. Through this character, Camus tells how we, mere humans, have "little importance" to the world and how we are subjects of the "flawed system" full of unnecessary and "tedious proceedings." The protagonist murders a man because killing and not killing made no difference. Thus, it's during the trial that Camus shows the "flaw" of the system, which finds a man slapping a woman guilty, but when a police slaps that man for it, it's okay. A bureaucracy that sentences a man to death not because of the crime but because its nonconformity.
"One always has exaggerated ideas about what one doesn't know." "it's common knowledge that life isn't worth living, anyhow." "I could see that it makes little difference whether one dies at the age of thirty or threesome and ten-since, in either case, other men and women will continue living, the world go on as before."-Meaursault
Aug 4, 2018Â
